(Adapted from an older RP on Audaxia)
The trawler came to a stop just near the Wahlsh coast as one of the men on board dropped the anchor. After a few minutes, another two dragged out a bloodied man in an older Werman uniform to the edge of the ship, followed by another man holding a large handgun. "Well, if I must say so myself, you have done quite the good job infiltrating our little operation, Wil. How long were you with them?" The words of Jory Hellhorn echoed through the ship. "I wasn't with them. I was with you, damn it!" Wil replied.
"And yet, you were the one that tipped off Karivik, and the only reason that fucker still walks is because of your treason, your inaction. And then, as soon as I announce my intention to go to Wahland due to the crisis, Weremark triples its patrols these parts? You're a traitor, Wil, and a liability. I’d lock you up for life, but, I’m afraid you’re about to serve a much crueller auxiliary function." Hellhorn said coldly, slipping a waterproof case holding forged documents in Wil's pocket, before clasping it shut.
"This isn't you, Hellhorn!" Wil asked, his voice getting a little desperate.
"It’s always been, and I know I don’t agree with it either. But, concessions have to be made for the greater good, such as now. Thanks to you, Wil, you'll get to be the spark that starts the fire. I will take down this Wahlsh government, and I'll do it without our stupid king's help." Hellhorn sighed as the tall bald man next to him pulled the hammer back on the handgun.
"What...what are you talking about?" Wil asked, frantic now.
"That capsule I just put in your pocket? Documents detailing a potentially planned Werman intervention in Wahland. It's very real, of course, isn’t it, Sergeant Alveric? You would know, with your high-level security clearance. It turns out you did get a rank, and even a promotion, when you rejoined our Werman friends. And you sent men to kill me, too? Shame." He muttered, as his henchman promptly fired a shot into Will’s abdomen, thus generating a scream of pain. "Someone will eventually fish you up. Maybe you'll wash up on that Wahlsh shore right down there. Maybe that Auroran fleet that's about to sail by this way will find you instead. But someone will, and they’ll see what our King really wants." Hellhorn kicked him off of the yacht, and he fell into the water with a splash. It would a matter of minutes at most before the man gave up.
"Happy swimming!" The boat began moving slowly away from the traitor's writhing, bloody body, and Hellhorn holstered his handgun as he knew that he had to get back to safety or risk swimming with the fishes himself.
***
“I want that hooligan’s head!” the King in a rage slammed his fist upon the round table. “To think he can declare his international revolution and promptly waltz around the Strait as if-”
“It’s us who have mucked up this time, Dagmund.” Jensen made his opinion clear. They sat in a smaller group this time, with only General Wulfar of Blackhorn Command joining them. General Wulfar, a balding, gruff fellow in his mid-fifties, looked mildly out of it, yet both the King and Jensen knew this was only a side effect of the revelation.
And so Wulfar began. “Twas a contingency plan, the document was, and nothing more, gentlemen. We have, of course, a scenario laid out with all of the potential avenues of attack in case of a Werman intervention in Wahland, but…”
“...but?” the King raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “But I’d never thought that someone could so easily take the files from my office! And those incompetents at the Intelligence Service, they don’t even know who-” Wulfar spat, clearly annoyed.
“But they know to whom it went. Alveric’s recorder functioned admirably, even if the man himself didn’t. What do we do here?” asked Jensen, interlocking his hands in the way he typically did when he wanted to suppress unwanted fidgeting. “Hellhorn’s a step ahead, and out of our direct reach, whatever ship he’s on. Well protected, too; our assassins died in transit. He must move ‘round often, for the Free Mundus recording’s backdrop looked to me more like a forest far away from here. “
“Tell Admiral Karivik, we’ll need to tread carefully here. The Wahlsh and Aurorans must both be independently notified of this situation, but details of our doctored invasion plan obviously cannot get out. We’ll need to find that body, if it’s not too late. But he was...a couple of miles at most away from the coastline. We really can have no clue, and if we play our cards wrong, it could lead us to war.” the King explained.
“And bring us on the side of Aurora,” noted Wulfar dutifully. “And you’d have them over our own kinsmen?” the King asked. “I’ll have none of it. Notify the Admiral at once and keep a look out for Hellhorn. And do tell them to search for the body, if they can. He’s one of ours, and that we could prove.“